voted for him.i'mwolfblitzer. you'rein "the situation room." >>> tempers flaring on capitol hill. senator john mccain lashing out at one of our cnn producers who questioned why he was missing a key hearing on the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. mccain has been a sharp critic of the president and his administration complaining lawmakers are not getting enough information. and when asked why he missed that meeting today, he lashed out. our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is up on capitol hill. she's got more on this sensitive story. dana, what happened? >> reporter: well, it turns out, wolf, cnn learned that most of the republicans on this key committee that had a briefing on what happened in benghazi did not go. in fact, it was three out of the eight republicans on that committee. one of those republicans who did not go to that briefing, it was a classified briefing, was john mccain. now, mccain at the time was having a press conference yesterday lashing out at the administration for not getting enough information and calling for a select committee to

for "the situation room"andwolfblitzer. >>>fred, thanks very much. happening now, lawmakers lashing out at the president, the news media and each other. tempers flare as congress probes the deadly attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. you're about to hear a tape of senator john mccain's contentious exchange with cnn. also, we've seen pictures like this of the benghazi compound on september 11th, but today for the first time lawmakers are seeing surveillance video of the assault that killed the united states ambassador, three other americans. i'll talk to one u.s. senator about what that video shows. and mitt romney's speaking out about his election loss blaming what he calls gifts -- that's a quote, gifts, the president people gave to people who voted for him. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> tempers flaring on capitol hill. senator john mccain lashing out at one of our cnn producers who questioned why he was missing a key hearing on the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. mccain has been a sharp critic of the president and his administration

will have republican chief executives, the most in 12 years. they'llbecnn'swolfblitzerwilljoin me to talk about the state of the states and the state of the gop. hey, wolf, great to see you. i want you to watch the screen here. because louisiana's bobby jindal is taking over the leadership of the republican governor's association, you know that. he's bringing some tough love to the party. listen to what he told politico. quote, we cannot be, we must not be the party that simply protects the rich so they get to keep their toys. the reality is, we have to be a party of solutions and not just bumper sticker slogans. he called on republicans to stop being the stupid party. as my friend soledad likes to say, a come to jesus moment for the gop, wolf? >> well, they certainly thought they were going to win the presidential race. they went in convinced that all the so-called mainstream polls were wrong, that they were oversampling for democrats and undersampling for republicans. if anything, we undersampled the number of democrats that would show up. democrats were clearly much more enthus

seethewolfblitzerskit?>> happening now! >> they do agreatwolf. agreat wolf. okay. ahead this morning on "starting point," we took you at the top of the show live to gaza. coming up next, live to jerusalem as israel broadens its assault. will intense negotiations happening right now, will it all stop the bloodshed? >> and mayors from across the country gathering to pressure lawmakers for a deal on the fiscal cliff. they say their cities will struggle with no compromise. we're going to talk live to myer michael nutter and mesa mayor scott smith. >> also the president is not impressed. the picture with an olympic star gymnast that's gone viral. what's that about? back in a moment. >>> it is half past the hour here. welcome back to "starting point" on this monday. soledad is off today, i'm brooke baldwin. >> i'm john berman. an israeli missile has leveled a two story home in gaza city, killing 11 civilians, 4 of them children. the violence threatening to escalate out of control. rockets raining from gaza to israel. representatives from two sides are in egypt for cease-fire t

.m. easterntime.wolfblitzerishosting that, and we will obviously carry that for you live when it happens. want to talk a little bit more about the fiscal cliff. chief business correspondent ali velshi joins us. you heard brianna talk about this meeting with ceos about that. how much of that is pr and how much of that is really critical conversation? >> well, the very conservative leaders, and anti-tax leaders, have called the whole thing pr. they think it's giving the president cover. you see there the ceos of aetna, xerox, american express, honeywell, walmart, ge, dow, procter & gamble, ford, pepsi. these are not people who are hostile to the president, so is it giving him cover? these are big employers. the president needs to discuss the fiscal cliff and taxes with them. what the allegation is is that there are no representatives of small business there and no representatives of the don't touch taxes, the grover norquist u.s. chamber of commerce group represented there. that's a relationship the president doesn't have. >> i think it could be you're right i don't know that all of th you

in the past hour or two. but that one -- that one was pretty loud. >> all right,cnn'swolfblitzerisalso covering the conflict from jerusalem. stay with cnn for the very latest breaking news from the region. >>> also this morning, president obama in the midst of an historic three-nation tour of southeast asia. overnight, he was in myanmar. the country formerly known as burma. this is the first time that a sitting u.s. president has visited that country. mr. obama met democracy activist turned lawmaker aung san suu kyi. and says the country's made great strides toward democracy in an incredibly short amount of time. >> i want to make a pledge to the people of this country, that i am confident we can keep. that is if we see continued progress towards reform our bilateral ties will grow stronger and we will do everything we can to help ensure success. >> he was on the ground there for six hours. suu kyi struck a note of caution, warning of the risks of a mirage of success in myanmar. cnn's dan lothian is traveling with the president. he will have a live report just ahead. >>> vice president